With crowds descending on Walt Disney World to ring in the new year, the Magic Kingdom has begun to turn guests away.
As of about 1:00 PM, Magic Kingdom is now experiencing a Phase B closure, meaning access to the park is now closed to some guests. Disney’s Hollywood Studios, EPCOT and Disney’s Animal Kingdom are still welcoming guests.
This first phase of capacity closure only affects those people with 1-day, 1-park tickets who are not staying on Disney property. Anyone with a multi-day ticket, Annual Pass, or those staying at any Disney hotels and most Disney Springs hotels, as well as those with dining reservations, are still permitted to enter.
Those who made it into Magic Kingdom before the closure are enduring long waits for rides, with wait times of more at or near three hours for Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, and the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.
Rember Chevy Chase and Wally World
I miss the good ol’ days when there was a separate ticketed event for New Year’s Eve at MK – – I went several times back in the 80s and there was class entertainment all around the park. I also miss the wonderful bands that played at NYE at Pleasure Island – and the confetti rockets going off with the countdown to midnight. Maybe more is sometimes too much?
I was on MK on the 31st and I can confirm it was a terrible experience. I’m worried that instead of expanding MK, they are going to make a new resort near it on River Country.
It was so crowded on the 31st, that a street stopped moving at one point and staff members had to take control of the situation.
Placing yet another hotel is going to aggravate this.